The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, an information processing system, and a providing medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, an information processing system, and a providing medium, which are adapted to attach various virtual information to real world environments or situations (such as a position and an object), and to present those various attached information.
Recently, systems and interfaces called Augmented Reality (abbreviated as AR hereinafter) have been proposed. “Augmented Reality” is a generic term for systems and interfaces based on the concept of providing information, which corresponds to situations in the real world such as a position and an object, to users and offering a more comfortable interface for the real world to the users.
FIG. 30 shows the concept of AR. As shown in FIG. 30, a user terminal, e.g., a computer that the user can wear on himself or herself (referred to as a wearable computer 122 hereinafter), is always held in an ON-state to observe real world environments 121 and to present appropriate information to the user as required.
A sensor 123 includes, e.g., an IR (infrared) sensor, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) video camera and a microphone to take in information (position information, ID information, voice information, etc.) of the real world environments 121. The information taken in by the sensor 123 is supplied to a server 125 via a network. The server 125 reads data, which corresponds to the supplied information of the real world, from an internal database 125a in which data corresponding to the information of the real world is stored beforehand, and renders the read data to be displayed on an HUD (Head Up Display) 124 via a network. With such a system, the user can acquire the data corresponding to the situations in the real world environments 121.
One example of such an AR system is reported by Steven Feiner, Blair Maclntyre, and Doree Seligmann, “Knowledge-based augmented reality,” Communication of the ACM, Vol. 36, No. 7, pp. 52-62, August 1993. This AR system is a maintenance system for a laser beam printer. Assist information produced based on position information, which is obtained by a ultrasonic sensor, is indicated on a transmission type wearable display mounted on the user's head.
Apart from the above-described AR system, there are known systems allowing users to exchange various information about things in the real world or various information in the virtual world via a network or the like. For example, information exchange service systems called an on-line bulletin board system (BBS) and chat over the Internet have been already utilized. With one of personal computer (PC) communication services, a bulletin board (forum) or the like subdivided depending upon favorable items of users is provided so that the users can exchange information via the bulletin board. This form of service often plays a predominant role in the user community. The BBS is usually utilized in such a manner that the user retrieves an interesting bulletin board through a search service based on the name of the bulletin board, etc., and then browses information written on the retrieved bulletin board or writes new information on it.
However, the conventional AR system described above is problematic in that the assist information displayed on the HUD or the like is limited to the information previously registered in a database stored in a computer, and such information (annotation) as popping into the user's head during maintenance work cannot be newly added to the database. Specifically, the above-described AR system is only able to read information corresponding to situations in the real world from among the information previously stored in the database, and to present the read information to users. In other words, the conventional AR system has been merely a context-aware browser.
When users receive the information exchange services such as the BBS and chat over the Internet or PC communication, the users face such a problem that they have to retrieve, e.g., interesting bulletin boards through a search service based on the name of each bulletin board, etc. However, a large number of bulletin boards, etc. exist on the Internet, and it is not always easy to quickly find out a desired one of those bulletin boards, etc. on which desired information is written.